Feasibility study on enhanced and#945; amylase production from aspergillus tamarii

Abstract

a-amylase is an industrially important enzyme that finds application in many areas. Increasing demand in the market for this enzyme has created a need for more production of this enzyme. This has led to user industries seeking for amylase manufacturers who can supply sufficient quantity of amylase with improved performance. Among various microbial sources, fungus is widely used for the production of amylase due to their ability to provide higher productivity. Submerged fermentation is mainly used for the production of enzymes as it renders many advantages, mainly, easy availability of equipment for scaling up and uniform mixing of media which leads to good mass transfer. Fungi can grow either in the form of filaments or pellets (with spherical shape) in submerged fermentation. The filamentous growth follows an exponential relationship, whereas the pelleted form follows a cubical relationship. The pelleted form of growth has many advantages over the filamentous growth. Industries prefer the use of pelleted culture as it prevents the media from high viscosity. No detailed study on amylase production from Aspergillus tamarii is available as far as Aspergillus species are concerned. In this research work, Aspergillus tamarii, isolated from tannery effluent soil by Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai, India was chosen. Using this fungus, the institute has produced protease, lipase and amylase enzymes for the purpose of application in leather processing. During the production of protease, the fungi grew in pellet form. From the above studies, it showed that the Aspergillus tamarii has the ability to produce amylase and it can be grown in pelleted form. Hence, in this research work, an attempt was made to explore the possibility of Aspergillus tamarii being used as one of the best producers of amylase through the pellet form of growth of the microorganism newline